Hello,I was after some advice, I am 32 yrs old native English speaker and would love to teach English , I am currently working in the construction industry I would ideally like to find a teaching post in Jakarta, I have seen that the English First schools are looking for new teachers and have a option where they refund the cost of an I-to-I course, does anyone have any experience with either one of these company’s? I don’t have any relevant teaching experience I am a martial arts instructor but that as far as my teaching experience goes , and I am stuck as to what I should list on my C.V , I really do want to give teaching a try , but I am concerned that the school may not take my application seriously ! I am also a little worried about my regional accent, would this hinder my ability to teach or find work?

I have lived and worked in south East Asia before, so adjusting to the culture and food (love the food!!) Shouldn’t be a problem, I also speak a little bahasa Malay/Indon, should I put this on my C.V? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

First off the basic qualifications you'll need are a degree (in pretty well anything) and a TEFL certificate. This latter can be taken anywhere and doesn't have to be done in the country where you'd like to teach.

Is there any country where you don’t need a degree to teach? I was under the impression that Indonesian working visa laws are a bit more relaxed then most other countries and that as long as you have a TEFL certification you could find work there, I fully understand the pay would be less and career advancement would be restricted some what , but I was hoping to study a mixed online/on site course then try teaching for a year to see if it was really for me or not then maybe study a online degree while teaching then going for the CELTA qualification , and moving on from there , I think at the moment I just could not commit do to doing full time course to get a degree and I would need to study for 3 years before I could seek employment , right now I don’t have any long term commitments so making a move to another country and changing career is pretty easy for me at the moment ,in 3 or 4 years time I would imagine that this would change ! Is that the end of the road for my teaching career? Help!! Any advice would be great!

Virtually all countries require a degree and TEFL certificate as their basic qualifications to teach. There are jobs available if you don't have a degree but generally they fall into two categories:

1) Jobs where there is no legal requirement for a degree; the problem here is that these are few and far between, in limited countries, and it is likely to change in the near future.

2) Jobs on the "black market" as it were. These are going to be in schools which are desperate for a teacher and who will hire anyone who speaks English well enough. The problem here is that you will be working illegally which means that there's no recourse if your boss doesn't pay you and likewise the standard of the school is not going to be that high.

The way to get these jobs is simple; you need to be there! So, at minimum get yourself a TEFL Certificate to have at least one qualification you can show, then get over to where you want to teach with enough back up money to get you out if things go wrong.

Although this is a generalisation, you can get a job without a degree in most Asian countries. Certainly in some areas of China and Korea it's possible.

The idea of a basic course now and then a CELTA later on sounds ideal to me. I have always said that CELTA is too much for a new teacher and should only be undertaken with a couple of years' experience under your belt.